J.D. Power ranks Samsung tablets better than iPad entirely due to cost

J.D. Power and Associates released a new study on tablet customer satisfaction, ranking Apple's iPad second behind Samsung's tablets for the first time, entirely on the basis of cost.

A previous report released in April narrowly ranked iPad first ahead of Amazon, with Samsung, Asus, and Acer all turning in scores below the rating firm's "industry average."

Today however, J.D. Power issued a volume two version of its tablet report, ranking Amazon's Kindle well below average and putting Samsung on top, just a few points ahead of Apple (835 to 833, out of 1000). Apple's iPad beat Samsung in performance, ease of use, physical design and in tablet features

In its detailing of the points it awarded each maker, J.D. Power said Apple's iPad beat Samsung in performance, ease of use, physical design and in tablet features, ranking Samsung better solely in terms of cost.

At the same time, the firm maintains that its study "measures satisfaction across five key factors (in order of importance): performance (26%); ease of operation (22%); styling and design (19%); features (17%); and cost (16%)."

Despite a cost advantage, and regular promotions that give away tablets, Samsung continues to sell far fewer tablets than Apple. This is particularly evident in Good's enterprise rankings, which show 95 percent of business apps are for iPad and 90 percent of devices used are iPads, as well as education figures showing a 94 percent adoption of Apple's iPad over competing tablets.